Streaming Companies in Australia are facing a real threat from large tech and retail operators who are starting to snap up the rights to sports rights around the world with a real threat emerging that Australia which is known as a sports loving nation are next.
Last week we reported that Apple is close to a deal with FIFA — the sport’s global governing body — for worldwide rights for an expanded version of the Club World Cup that will take place in the US in 2025.
The New York Times claims the deal could be worth upward of US$1 billion and that an official announcement could happen sometime this month, the move could hurt SBS.
Over the weekend Bloomberg claimed that Amazon is close to a deal to bring NBA games to its Prime Video streaming service.
The US NBA league that has a following in Australia, is close to a deal with Walt Disney’s ESPN, which is expected to keep the rights to the NBA finals but lose regular-season games.
Details on the number of games Amazon will have in the regular season and playoffs are still being ironed out they claim.
In Australia Nine Entertainment is desperate to get both the streaming and free to air rights which are held by Foxtel for the next seven years, the big question is whether Nine Entertainment will have the revenues to go after both the streaming and free to air TV rights for the NRL during the next negotiation period as revenues and profits at the network fall with insiders tipping that securing advertising deals is getting “harder” for the network.
Seven who have the AFL rights are also struggling with questions now being raised re their future and a possible sale of the network to a streaming Company.
Nine Entertainment realise that they don’t have much left to attract audiences, with sport are the biggest draw for the TV networks, making NRL must-have programming, especially as the audience for general entertainment programming is all going to streaming Companies such as Foxtel, Binge and Kayo.
Rights to the US women’s league, the WNBA, are expected to be included as part of both deals with Amazon who now has a major presence in Australia.
The NBA’s incumbent partners are Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. The league’s current media deals are worth a total of $24 billion, or over US$2.6 billion a year. Those contracts expire after the 2024-2025 season.
The NBA is looking double its income from TV rights and add at least one or two more partners, the people said. The league is also talking to Warner Bros., whose Turner division has carried games since 1984, and Comcast Corp.’s NBC, which lost its basketball rights in 2002.
Sports are the biggest draw for major TV networks, making them must-have programming, especially as the audience for general entertainment programming has declined.